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I should clarify, the heirloom wood at my in-law's house is not mine, although I've become the curator of the collection, and if I ask real nicely and prove my worthiness and skill I can use some of it. My wife and I will probably inherit most of it some day, since we're the only ones who show any interest in it. I'll try and get some pictures of it next time I visit, but it's mostly just stacked on a rack or piled in cardboard boxes. It's quite an extensive collection, and apparently accounts for only a fraction of the original collection, much of which was given to his woodworker buddies shortly before his passing. I can only imagine the treasures that he had.

My father in law (F-I-L) does use it, for family gifts. F-I-L has made some truly priceless heirloom gifts, including a set of cocobolo mirror frames (5x2 feet, about 3 inches thick), a series of spectacular burl chess boards, and some brazilian rosewood (the real deal!) jewelery boxes with curly maple drawers and ebony handles that would be worth a fortune, if they could be legally bought or sold.I've been told that it is only to be used for items that will stay in the family, and the rarity of some of the wood means that some of it cannot be legally sold or traded (there's quite a lot of brazilian rosewood, for example, which I believe is in the same legal category as elephant ivory).

My own personal wood collection is much smaller, and mostly consists of smaller turning blanks and some thin stock scraps and a few small, thin boards (probably cutoffs from a guitar or violin maker by the looks of them). I got a box of about 90 pen blanks and another box of about 40 bottle stopper blanks (1.5 x1.5 x 3), for mega cheap ($10 per box at an estate sale). The pen blanks can be re-sawn to make perfect paring knife handle scales, and the stopper blanks should be perfect for segmented wa handles. Pretty good variety of tropical hardwoods, but no burl.

My first re-handle, of a favorite filet knife, with some rather dull hard maple. The old handle was an ugly plastic handle: (can anyone see these photos?)

Second re-handle, of a cheap old paring knife, also replacing an ugly plastic handle. I used a kingwood pen blank that I sawed in half to make knife scales.

Am I allowed to post photos of my work? The policies about that seem fairly strict and a bit confusing. The big scary green warning at the top of the screen certainly makes it sound like posting photos of any work is forbidden.

As requested, some photos of my wood collection nearly all of which I got at a single estate sale. I got these two boxes for $20, and all that loose wood on the shelf for another $10 so it was a great deal on probably several hundred dollars worth of exotic wood. It means I can practice my skills without pouring too much money down the drain on materials. The previous owner was apparently a pen turner and worked on other similar small woodworking crafts like key chains and jewelery. He seems to have sold them at fairs and such.

Unfortunately they are not exactly ideal for handle making. One box is pen blanks (0.74" x 6"), and the other is bottle stopper blanks (1.5" x 3"), and I don't own a lathe (yet). But it's nice exotic wood. I suppose it will force me to be creative. Expect to see some multi-wood combos, glued up and segmented handles coming out of my shop, because none of these are large enough to make a whole handle or scale on their own (except for maybe paring knives). But I always did like the segmented look, and wooden bolsters, ferules, and pommels can look pretty good.

my bargain boxes of exotic wood

An assortment of labeled blanks, to show the varieties in the boxes.

Some flat stock and larger non-exotic turning blanks that might be useable as handle material. lots of zebra wood. all of this would probably need stabilizing to be used as handle material. I'm still trying to identify many of these pieces.